revive
verb
Simple meaning
To cause to come back or return.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihvyvSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈvaɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitivefigurative
To cause (a feeling, state of mind, etc.) to come back or return; to reactivate, to reawaken.
transitivefigurative
To renew (something) in one's or people's memories or minds; to bring back (something) to (public) attention; to reawaken.
transitivefigurative
To make (something which has become faded or unclear) clear or fresh again; to refresh.
Be brought back to life, consciousness, or strength
transitivefigurative
To cause (something) to recover from a state of decline, neglect, oblivion, or obscurity; to make (something) active or lively again; to reanimate, to revitalize.
transitive
To cause (a person or animal) to recover from a faint; to cause (a person or animal) to return to a state of consciousness.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (figurative) To cause (a feeling, state of mind, etc.) to come back or return; to reactivate, to reawaken.
Used this way, revive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use revive
- “The doctors revived the comatose man.”verb
- “A hot soup will revive me.”verb
- “He revived this style of opera.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Restored to consciousness or life or vigor.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to cause (a feeling or state of mind
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.